Fireworks-related injuries rise to over 700

Fireworks-related injury in the Philippines (Photo courtesy of Barako News and DOH)

MANILA –The Department of Health (DOH) said Saturday that the number of fireworks related injuries (FWRI) reached 730 cases as of 6 a.m. of Jan. 3 since the monitoring started last Dec. 21, 2014.

“This is 26 percent lower than the five-year average period (2009-2013),” said DOH spokesperson, Dr. Lyndon Lee-Suy.

During the same period last year a total of 1,006 cases were recorded.

Dr. Lee-Suy also said that the National Capital Region, (NCR) with 396 cases, topped the list of injuries by regions.

The City of Manila alone had a total of 153 cases.

Region 1 followed the list by Region with 68 total cases.

In the FWRI list, 714 injuries were due to fireworks blasting, four cases of ingestions (swallowing), and 12 cases of stray bullet incidence.

No death was recorded so far.

Some 573 cases or about 80 percent of the total number of injuries were from males.

Around 182 children ages 10 years and below were recorded to be victims of injuries.

About 34 of the injuries required amputations while 125 who were hurt were recorded with eye injuries due to the blast of firecrackers that hit portions of their eye/s.

Based on the data gathered, 317 cases of injuries were attributed to use of illegal fireworks.

The small, banned and illegal firecracker “piccolo” remained the top cause of injuries, which caused 247 injuries.

On fireworks ingestion, the latest victim was a 51-year-old female from Tuguegarao, Cagayan when her grandchild poured dragon firecracker gun powder unto her mouth while sleeping.

Among the victims of stray-bullets were two children who were less than 10 years old.

The 13-year-old victim of stray bullet is now improving condition at the East Avenue Medical Center.

The DOH continued to appeal to the public to have anti-tetanus shots even if the wounds due to firecrackers were just too small as the dirt of firecrackers can cause for bacteria to enter the open wound as tetanus that will cause lock-jaw and spasm which can lead to fatal results.